Direct and indirect measures of patient satisfaction with physicians' services

This research examines alternative measures of patient satisfaction. Three measures were compared: (1) a direct measure to evaluate how the patient felt about his own personal physician, (2) an indirect measure that assessed attitudes about physicians in general, and (3) a measure designed to be intermediate between these two. Responses to the three measures were found to differ: the levels of satisfaction increased with the directness of the measure used; indirect evidence that this relationship could not be attributed solely to a patient's reluctance to criticize his own physician is also provided. The three measures were compared in terms of their association with other assessments of outcome and with indicators of the process of care. Although none of the associations was statistically significant, high scores on the intermediate measure tended to correspond with better outcomes and higher scores on the process of care. These findings are at least compatible with the contention than an intermediate measure provides the most valid assessment of patient satisfaction.